Coming into the Country was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1977. The book is organized in three sections: “The Encircled River” (a canoe trip through the Brooks Range wilderness), “In Urban Alaska” (the debate over where to locate the state capital), and “Coming into the Country” (the settlers and miners of the Yukon Territory town of Eagle and its surroundings). Together, the three sections compose a portrait of Alaska as a whole — the tension between wilderness and development, between freedom and government, between the mythology of the frontier and its reality.
The first section is pure wilderness writing: McPhee paddles through some of the most remote country in North America, describing the landscape (tundra, mountains, rivers) and the wildlife (grizzly bears, caribou, grayling) with his characteristic precision. The middle section is political reportage: the surprisingly heated debate about moving Alaska’s capital from Juneau (remote, inaccessible) to a new site near Anchorage. The final section — the longest and finest — profiles the people of Eagle: settlers, prospectors, trappers, and recluses who have chosen to live at the edge of civilization.
The book captures Alaska at a crucial moment: after statehood (1959) and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline but before the full-scale development that oil money brought. McPhee’s settlers are the last generation of genuine frontiersmen — people living by hunting, trapping, and subsistence farming in conditions of extreme isolation. Their stories are compelling individually and collectively they constitute an argument about what Americans seek (and lose) in wilderness.
Collecting Coming into the Country
First edition (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1977): Cloth with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $50–$150
- Very good: $20–$50
- Signed: $100–$250
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation.
Alaska Before the Pipeline
Coming into the Country (1977) is McPhee’s longest single book — a three-part portrait of Alaska at a moment of transformation, as the Trans-Alaska Pipeline was being built and the state wrestled with questions of development, preservation, and identity. McPhee canoes the Salmon River in the Arctic wilderness, observes the political struggle to choose a new state capital, and profiles the settlers living off the grid in Eagle, a tiny town on the Yukon River near the Canadian border. The book is McPhee’s most expansive work and one of the essential books about Alaska.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this still relevant? The specific political debates have moved on, but the fundamental tension between wilderness preservation and economic development that McPhee documents remains the central drama of Alaskan life.